


The Camera Never Lies

by Berty



Category: due South
Genre: Community: ds_aprilfools, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-11
Updated: 2007-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Berty/pseuds/Berty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benton is finally home, watching the video of his leaving party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Camera Never Lies

Fraser watches the tape again. He's lost count somewhere along the way of exactly how many times. The strange muffled quality of the taped conversation and the mesmerising flicker of colours from the screen fill the room. Without him realising, evening has slipped into night outside the window of his office. He's waited until his shift ended to see what it is that Francesca has sent him. His RCMP assigned housing came unfurnished, and a video player is as likely to be on his 'things to buy' list as… well, something not very likely at all. So he has locked up the detachment, retired to his office and sat down to watch.

He was expecting the cassette to be embarrassing, ineptly shot video footage of his leaving party in Chicago from two months ago. In that much he has been correct, but Francesca's reasons for sending it are obscure. And her accompanying note is cryptic in the extreme.

"Missing you."

That is all. No signature (he had to check the return address on the padded envelope to be certain of his recognition of Francesca's overly ornate script). At first he thought the words expressed Francesca's own sentiments, but now, on having seen the tape, he doubts it.

Fraser distinctly remembers Francesca taking the camera from a loudly protesting Detective Dewey. Apparently Dewey had been concentrating his cinematography on the female contingent of the assembled guests. Particularly the ones with low-cut tops. Mercifully, Francesca has edited out all that footage from the tape she has sent him.

A good portion of the film is, predictably, of himself, but he's certain that isn't what has prompted Francesca to send this. Due to the enthusiastic but rather amateurish eye behind the camera, he has found himself something less than central to the shot, so instead of taking in whomever he was talking to, he is watching himself and the area of the twenty-seventh detective division directly behind him.

Intermittently in and out of focus is Ray Kowalski leant back on his desk, his hands curled over the edges. Like Fraser, he looks tanned and freshly shorn - they had arrived back from their adventure only four days prior and Fraser had returned with Ray only to hand over his duties to his replacement before taking up his new posting.

But it isn't Ray's healthy glow or newly re-blonded hair that have caught Fraser's eye, and nor, it would seem, Francesca's. It is Ray's whole demeanour, which is more subdued than Fraser can remember seeing, even at the lowest points of their journey. His head hangs down, his gaze, when not fixed on the floor in front of his feet, is directed at Fraser's back, and his eyes are unreadable at the resolution of this copy.

It is at this point in the film that he turned, bringing Ray into the conversation. The background noise is too great to hear his exact words, but the effect on his former partner is extraordinary to see, and for a full two minutes, Francesca has filmed Ray and himself talking and laughing together. Ray's grins are shining, brilliant, his body language relaxed and happy. The contrast between this animated Ray Kowalski and the pensive, quiet man from before couldn't be more stark.

Then, as Fraser watches himself turn to greet another guest, from memory, it had been Miss King, he sees Ray slip back to his place on the desk. Like a light switching off, the effect is that instantaneous – Ray has closed down again completely.

How can he have missed that? All those months working together? Two months together out on the ice? How can he have so completely misread his partner to have overlooked something so clear? Something others, like Francesca, have noticed? Maybe because he hadn't been looking for it? Maybe because he'd trained himself _not_ to watch his counterfeit partner for fear that he might reveal himself in exactly the way Ray has done here? Maybe because he'd ruthlessly dismissed any instinct that told him that Ray might hold him in the same regard as wishful thinking.

On the screen Ray runs a hand across his jaw, across his eyes and up into the spikes of his hair. His shoulders are slumped, and as the camera pans away to Constable Turnbull, whose tears by this point of the party were beyond hysterical, Ray is getting up and walking away.

When the video stops it is very quiet in Fraser's dark office. The sounds of the breeze through the firs behind the building and a dog barking in the distance replace the laughter and burble of Chicago. Fraser has never missed noise more.

Without conscious thought, Fraser reaches for the phone and dials a number he memorised long ago. The ringing tone is interrupted after three trills by a click and Ray's voice. "Hi, I'm not here. Here comes the beep."

Fraser looks at his watch, but the time difference hasn't made his call anti-social. When the beep sounds, Fraser realises he has no idea what he wants to say. "Ray… it's Fraser… Benton. I… ah… Ben. I was just… I wanted to… that is… Never mind."

He takes the phone away from his ear and slowly brings it back toward its cradle. Maybe a letter would be better. Or perhaps he should call at the weekend, when he has time to consider how he's going to say this. Or wait to see if Ray is moved to make some kind of gesture.

Or perhaps he's just a lonely man seeing something that wasn't there at all and he should forget the whole thing.

Or perhaps he's a coward condemning himself to a life alone for fear of humiliation.

He snatches the phone back. "I've got next weekend off, Ray. I wondered if I might come down and see you? I'd like to talk to you about…"

"Fraser?" Ray's voice is quiet.

"Ray!" Fraser is startled. "I didn't think… you were there?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I just… What did you wanna talk about? Is everything okay?"

And if Fraser had doubted what he'd seen on the screen, Ray's voice is all the reassurance he needs. He can hear the mixture of regret and hope, and in his mind's eye he can see Ray, letting the machine pick up so he doesn't have to face further disappointment. He'd have done the same thing himself.

"Everything's fine, Ray. Yes, I firmly believe that everything's going to be just fine."

Fin

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Camera Never Lies [PODFIC]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9680750) by [DesireeArmfeldtPodfic (DesireeArmfeldt)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesireeArmfeldt/pseuds/DesireeArmfeldtPodfic)




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